Kasztanka, Polish Marshal Józef Piłsudski's favorite combat mare, was stuffed upon her death in 1927 and after World War II was destroyed, allegedly on the orders of Piłsudski's enemy, Marshal Michał Rola-Żymierski.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Radio Daze

I’ve been hearing ads on the radio by Meg Whitman who is running for governor of California. She is quite disgusting on many levels. The most disgusting though is she wants to win on the backs of the poor. I haven’t checked her numbers but she claims California is a welfare state because of the number of people receiving welfare from the state of California. It’s the usual sort of thing we are used to hearing, “welfare shouldn’t be a way of life and if they don’t perform certain hoop jumping’s they will be stricken from the lists.” One hoop of course is that the no-good bums on welfare have to find jobs, this when California is one of the harder hit areas economically speaking where off shoring has pretty much destroyed what was once a thriving business for high tech manufacturing companies. So here you have god knows how many people looking for work and Peg Leg Meg wants to dump hundreds of thousands of wretched souls into what is already a market flooded with the unemployed. Great idea Meg! You’re a fucking genius! On top of this Peg Leg Meg wants to cut the amount of time recipients can receive benefits from five to two years. You’re all heart Meg and I’m certainly impressed with the way you are ready to step up to fame and fortune on the backs of the poor and outcast, what a great human being.

Speaking of great human beings I just read today how Martha Coakley propelled herself to fame after which she fell on her behind. According to Alexander Cockburn…

Obama richly deserves the rebuke from Massachusetts. Armed with a nation's fervent hopes a year ago, he spurned the unrivalled opportunity offered by economic crisis to do what he pledged: usher in substantive change. He's done exactly the opposite . Wall Street has been given the green light to continue with business as usual. The stimulus package was far too weak. The opportunity for financial reform has passed. Trillions will be wasted in Afghanistan.

A final note on Coakley. She rose to political prominence by peculiarly vicious grandstanding as a prosecutor, winning a conviction of 19-year old child minder Louise Woodward for shaking a baby to death. An outraged judge later freed Woodward, reducing her sentence to less than a year of time served. Then Coakley went after headlines in child abuse cases. Innocent people are still rotting in prison as a consequence of Coakley's misuse of her office. For this alone, regardless of the setback the Democrats richly deserved, I rejoice in her humiliation.

First, as Cockburn states, the opportunity of financial reform has passed, that, and many other things like health care reform. This will be Obama’s legacy, things that could have been won’t. As for Coakley her willingness to destroy other people’s lives to promote her own fame and fortune ranks right up there with Peg Leg Meg who would steal the very food out of the mouths of starving children to promote herself.

1. There was an article in the Contra Costa Times about Carly Fiorina (Repub running against Boxer, I think) who was touting her job-making skills. The only problem with that is when she was top exec at Hewlett-Packard she laid off most of the Americans and shipped those jobs to China. On top of that she managed to still run down H-P's profits and stock value. When I was back east I saw a TV ad for someone running for Connecticut office (gov or sen) who was reading from the exact same script.

Just a head's up. A Repub hoping you have a short memory is heading to a state near you.

2. I don't think the time for any reform, health care, banks or otherwise, has passed. It's a question of what the DLCers and corporatists are willing to allow. I'm hearing a lot of right-of-right-of-center Dems and media apologists suggest that the Brown election means the Dems must move further to the right. Like it worked in Virginia, eh?

Consider this:

http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/mapollresults/

Obama voters who either voted for Brown or stayed home favored a public option. That should put to bed the lie that Mass. voters were either selfish (I got my health insurance) or there was a sudden belief in Obama death panels.

Meanwhile, I've got it on good third-hand information that Brown was flirting way over the line inappropriately with a waitress in a diner in Milton, Mass., her eating french fries off his plate. So as the Appalachian Trail and frolicking with Ensign's staffers retreat into the past I'm looking for new, better scandals. I'm tired of Tiger and relieved that John Boy didn't get nominated.

It's raining here on the coast and the apartment house on the north end of my town is about to crash into the Pacific Ocean and national news. Over and out.

Bob, the research 200 poll is quite a find-- I saw a story earlier in the week in which CNN's polling director essentially said the democrats had made a decision that the demographic breakdown of the kind of voters who opposed Obamacare were unlikely to form any kind of cohesive coalition because they were essentially composed of the type of republicans who never vote for a democratic candidate and the "far left", and that the dems felt confident that even if the (so-called)far left were bummed in December and January, they could be reliably counted upon to come back to the fold this coming November. I suspect she's probably right, but hope otherwise.

Hi BobI don’t agree with you on reform as I think it will be quite some time before there is an opportunity like the one Obama had. It was perfect timing for real change, people against the terror wars, people angry about the Wall Street bail-outs, people angry about the housing bubble, angry with Bush and the republicans in general, and if you think about it the democrats could have really consolidated their position by just doing the right things. Instead the democrats, not just Obama, blew it all out the window. I think the dems are still living in the Clinton years, have the Clinton how-to-get-elected -by emulating -republicans -plan on their brains. Yup, a day late and a dollar, short that’s the dems.

On CEO’s like Fiorina and Whitman I do agree with you and in fact it seems a bit odd that CEO’s, considering their general unpopularity, would try to use their CEO experience to run for office but who knows. Whitman claims she can create new jobs because of her experience. How come I don’t believe her?

El Nino is finally kicking in and I’m enjoying the deluge immensely though I suppose the apartment building owners of the apartment you mentioned aren’t happy. I’d be willing to bet their insurance company won’t cover eroding apartment buildings; it’s in the fine print under falling buildings.

Hi Jonathan,Well okay, I made up the peg leg part but that was because she reminds me of a pirate!

Yeah, I figured that. I was going to create an image of her with an eyepatch and a parrot squawking for tax cuts on her shoulder, but I couldn't find a suitable image, and besides I really need to spend less time on th' internets.